Volume One Issue One
White Paper by Dr. Karen L. McGraw
PERFORMANCE DNA ANALYSIS
Toolset to Target Performance Improvement Opportunities
Introduction
Ask most managers how to improve the performance of people in key roles and most will answer, “more training” or “hire better skills.” Organizations annually spend considerable funds chasing improved performance, but in many cases these monies are ill-used. Above average performance doesn’t just happen. It requires the confluence of many factors—some intrinsic to the person (e.g., skills and motivation), and others extrinsic (e.g., tools, processes, feedback). Selecting solutions or interventions to improve performance without an analysis of the performance rarely achieves desired results.
Previous analysis methodologies often focused on “how do we improve our below-average performers?” Time and money was then spent analyzing what poor performers were doing “wrong.” The better approach is to examine exemplary performers—those who are performing above average—and figure out what factors seem to be contributing to their level of performance. Then we apply that knowledge to improve the performance of others. In this way we “find out what’s right to fix what’s wrong.” The analysis findings help pinpoint the ‘DNA’ of successful performance in ways that can then be used to enhance the performance of the sea of average performers that exists in most organizations.
We use Performance DNA to conduct the analyses that enable us to understand how star performers are achieving higher levels of success. Performance DNA is a systematic, holistic “front end” analysis methodology developed to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the human performance analysis process. This document provides an overview of Performance DNA and its phases. First, it gives a top-level description of Performance DNA. Then it describes the 4 phases within the methodology.
What is Performance DNA Analysis?
Performance DNA is a holistic approach to the analysis of human performance. The principal theory underlying this approach is that human performance is similar to any organic system – it is organized according to a blueprint or code which enables the organism to thrive. Performance DNA is designed to unlock the ‘genetic’ code to optimum performance in a way that enables that performance to be transferred throughout the organization.
Performance DNA is based on the concept that performance factors unfold in a predictable order: from influence through goals. Consequently, the Performance DNA approach leads the analyst through the HPI1 journey—from articulating the organization’s business goal, through the entire performance analysis process, leading to the identification of the key influences that affect performance in the workplace.
Performance DNA is different in that it approaches performance ‘organically’ – as a system made up of interdependent parts (outcomes, task and processes) that are affected by influencing factors. Viewed this way, Performance DNA defines the individual ‘parts’ first, in order to uncover what influences them. This process has the effect of mapping the performance – creating the optimum code for producing the desired business outcomes (the DNA of performance) – enabling that same performance to be reproduced across the organization.
"In almost everything, experience
is
more valuable than precept."
Quintilian